Nigeria’s oil industry faces dual threats from international crude theft syndicates and entrenched domestic cartels resisting reforms.
Nigeria’s oil sector, the backbone of Africa’s largest economy, is facing simultaneous threats from international criminal syndicates and entrenched domestic cartels.
At the Africa Chief of Defence Staff Conference in Abuja, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Chief Executive Bashir Ojulari warned that crude oil theft is a “sophisticated operation conducted by international and continental syndicates.”
He added, “Crude theft and its attendant illegal activities are by no means a purely localised occurrence; rather, these operations involve specialised international syndicates that take advantage of gaps within the state, national and continental security architecture.”
Recent army crackdowns seized over 32,000 gallons of stolen petroleum and arrested 69 suspects.
Meanwhile, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, said his $20 billion refinery is under siege from a domestic “oil mafia” intent on sabotaging the project.
“The oil mafia is more deadly than the one in drugs,” he declared, accusing entrenched petroleum importers of resisting change that threatens their profits.
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